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With a word of mouth buzz thats been following The Magic Numbers around for the better part of a year now, their self titled debut album comes with a fevered sense of anticipation. The facts surrounding the band up to now have mainly focused on their two sets of brother/sister line-up and the fact that these aren't your supermodel skinny archetypes at play - but what's been widely ignored is the strength of the songs, infectious pop tunes with sun drenched West Coast harmonies and jangling guitars.
As the recent single, FOREVER LOST proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, the sheer level of joy and wonder that emerges when The Magic Numbers get together and play is astounding. Already marked out as one of the singles of the year and included early on here, FOREVER LOST, loses nothing over time, still sounding like the perfect collision between The Mamas And The Papas, The Byrds and Teenage Fanclub and infecting you with its charm from the word go.
As the opening shot, MORNINGS ELEVEN does its level best to immediately drop you into The Magic Numbers headspace, a place where Californian pop is played by a country tinged indie-rock band with huge grins on their faces at all times and a skip in their step. As a needle drops on vinyl and a scratchy guitar riff is rattled off with loose energy, LONG LEGS emerges as a song that sounds much like The Kings Of Leon without the rock n roll swagger and more of a hazy laid back cool. With the kind of infectious melodies and feel good manner that have by now come to define this band, this is another catchy slice of country inflected pop that skips along on country guitar licks and good vibes.
WHICH WAY TO HAPPY is an almost gospel themed song that flitters between sparse drum and piano verses to busier choruses full of sweet guitar chords and steady bass lines, all centred around Romeo Stodart's passionate vocals that veer between a gentle baritone and excitable screeching crescendo and anyone remembering epic indie-rockers Ultrasound and their singer Tiny Wood, will spot the similarity in vocal styles. With I SEE YOU, YOU SEE ME, another laid back song that rides along on gentle guitar lines, steady drum beats and piano - the band share out the vocal duties in a glorious duet between the siblings. Michele Stodart and Angela Gannon's sweet and husky voices, previously only heard fleetingly in the backing vocals and choruses is given free range and left to handle whole verses solo. Its something that works perfectly, resulting in glorious male/female vocal harmonies and showcasing three singers who could quite easily front bands on their own.
The more introspective, THIS LOVE, trades some of the joyous vibes for a darker direction - minor key acoustic guitar lines are picked while a mournful cello swells in the background eventually building to a crescendo of three way vocal harmonies and frantic drum patterns, while the darker introspection also informs the sadly beautiful WHEELS ON FIRE, another country tinged ballad that would have been worthy of Johnny Cash.
THE MAGIC NUMBERS is a record absolutely brimming with infectious pop songs ready and waiting to burst out and make you smile, drinking from the same fountain as bands like Teenage Fanclub and Belle And Sebastian. Sure, you can criticise for a certain lack of originality or lack of variety that runs through a lot of these songs - but the fact that they approach things with such a sense of infectious joy and goodwill is a factor that leapfrogs them miles above similar wannabes like Hal or Starsailor If The Magic Numbers don't emerge as one of the success stories of the
summer this year, the something is seriously wrong. A band you can
seriously fall in love with, this is a mixture of sun kissed West Coast harmonies and warm guitar work thats going to see The Magic Numbers winning hearts and bringing sunshine wherever they go.

The sound of The Magic Numbers revolves around the brilliant songwriting and guitar playing talents of singer Romeo. Born and raised in Trinidad (where his mother had her own opera show on TV) the family moved to New York when he was teenager and later moved again to Ealing in London.
There he met drummer Sean and started making music. Consequently, these days the two are to be found sitting in the sound-proofed front room of the family's terraced house, without natural light or air, surrounded by instruments, prolifically penning as yet unheard classics.
To complete the core band line-up they added Romeo's equally talented sister Michele on bass and vocals, while Sean's sister Angela takes care of percussion, melodica and third vocals.
Drawing inspiration from many sources, singer songwriters (Cohen, Dylan), 60's harmony groups (Mamas & Papas, Lovin Spoonful), epic rock or such mavericks as David Axelrod. The band craft a sound which like Flaming Lips or Beck, is coming from everywhere but is uniquely theirs.
The band have recently signed to Heavenly Recordings - look out for a limited edition 7" single release soon.

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